Amanda's Bookshop Corner

Have I got recommendations for you? Yep! In fact much more than I can fit on this one page!

I’m not yet a bookstore affiliate, so I don’t have a handy shopping link for you, but in support of independent bookstores, if you’re buying online, why not check-in with bookstore.org?

These are books I rate highly so forgive me for waxing effusive and saying they’re all unforgettable must-reads … I’m also terribly distracted by themes and telling you the themes as I perceived them, beats giving you spoilers!

PS if you're looking for Amanda Coreishy's books, scroll down to the bottom of any page on this site and you'll see my Readers' Circle form. The link to your free book will go straight to your inbox! Easy!

The Overstory - Richard Powers (The million-copy global bestseller and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction)

Overstory by Richard Powers is a book people either love or hate. I thought it was a feat of sheer brilliance. The novel runs with a wide cast of passionate and unforgettable characters who will leave you asking moral questions you may never be able to answer. In Overstory the person is political. And the question is, are Richard Powers’ characters radicalised, or is it everyone else who is drugged up and dumbed down on something called ‘normal’? His novel left me contemplating the relationships I’ve had with individual trees over the years. It reminded me how disconnected I am from nature and invited me to find anew a regard for trees I can only describe as spiritual.

This book is available here

Shuggie Bain - Douglas Stuart (Winner of the Booker Prize 2020)

Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart is unflinchingly dark. What might it have been like to be a little boy living in poverty in the 1980’s, in a Scotland where your mother had a severe substance-abuse problem, your father was a violent homophobe and families in your community were battered by unemployment? Startling in both its compassion and honesty, you won’t be able to forget Shuggie and you will wish him well.

This book is available here

Sofia Khan is Not Obliged: A heartwarming romantic comedy - Ayisha Malik

Sofia Khan is Not Obliged is my kind of funny - a page-after-page laugh-out-loud book. Author Ayisha Malik wrote a frank fuck-off-to- Islamophobia, utterly hilarious novel – without being afraid to point out the imperfections of her own community with equal bluntness.

This book is available here

The Buddha of Suburbia - Hanif Kureishi

The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi. Delightfully irreverent and unapologetic, packed with action, comedy and a wide cast of engaging characters. An opportunity to look back at London and its suburbs of the 1970’s and be fascinated by what’s changed and what’s just the same. The questions raised in The Buddha of Suburbia have never really gone away.

This book is available here

The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy

Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things is a literary masterpiece set in Kerala, India. It unfolds like a mystery, shrouded in a heavy mist of sorrow. Yet it’s lit up with the most beautiful writing and vibrant characters. This book is that rare novel I want to go back to and read again.

This book is available here

The Wrong Way to Wright - Author D. Adiba

The Wrong Way to Wright by Dia Adiba tells the story of Aya, a woman tired of waiting for love, who settles instead with the well-off, older Desi. Her debts are cleared and her dream career is taking off, but Marley’s also walked into her life and challenges her settled narrative. A page-turner with plenty of schemers and surprises but no fairy tale vibes. Can Aya do right by her husband without doing wrong to herself?

This book is available here

This Green and Pleasant Land - Ayisha Malik (Winner of The Diverse Book Awards 2020)

Ayisha Malik’s This Green and Pleasant Land takes a good, hard look at the polite and respectable version of English Islamophobia, while lightening things up with Malik’s trademark humour. And don’t you love an English book with a pub quiz and a dear Khala who doesn’t speak good English? Whereas Malik’s debut Sophia Khan is Not Obliged is a riot and a proper fuck-off to Islamophobia, This Green and Pleasant Land is a thoughtful exploration.

This book is available here

Together - Julie Cohen

Julie Cohen has a talent for making you feel deeply for all her characters. Together is the story of a love so beautifully depicted you’ll weep. And it’s a novel with an ending so shocking you’ll …okay, no spoilers.

This book is available here.

We That Are Young - Preti Tanja

We That Are Young by Preti Taneja is a modern day re-telling of King Lear, a feat accomplished with sheer brilliance and breathtaking skill. Set in contemporary India, the novel explores power, wealth, misogyny and control. And there is no question it asks about India that we cannot also ask of ourselves, wherever we are in the world.

This book is available here.

When Ali Met Honour - Ruth Ahmed

A white atheist English woman from Kent and a British Pakistani man fall in love. They won’t give up their beliefs but they won’t give up their love either. This moving exploration of the challenges of ‘mixed marriage’ was written by an English woman and a British Pakistani man from the alternating points of view of Honour and Ali. Ruth Ahmed is a pseudonym.

This book is available here.